bathymetric map
Initial discovery by Europeans The atoll was discovered in 1822 when the English whaleships
Pearl and
Hermes ran aground on the surrounding reefs. The two ships had been en route to Japan from Honolulu through the uncharted waters of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Sometime late in the evening of April 24 or early in the morning of April 25, the 258-ton
Hermes ran aground on an unseen reef. Shortly thereafter, the 327-ton
Pearl also ran aground when it approached to provide assistance. The combined crews of both ships, some 57 sailors, were marooned on an unspecified island nearby for several months. During that time, James Robinson, a
carpenter's mate, directed the construction of a small 30-ton vessel from the wreckage. Some accounts provide the name of the vessel as
Drift, while others state it was called
Deliverance. On July 1, before the beach-built vessel could be launched, the passing ship
Earl of Morby was sighted. 46 of the sailors took passage on the
Earl of Morby, but Robinson and eleven others opted to purchase the vessel they had built and sail it back to Honolulu in the hopes of recovering some of the losses incurred by the wreck. In 1857, it was surveyed by the crew of the Hawaiian
schooner Manuokawai. The
Japanese schooner
Wiji Maru was wrecked on the atoll in 1904, destroying the ship and its cargo of feathers. There was no loss of life, however. He reported that they were rich with
pearls – the only pearl beds in the United States. Anderson formed a trading company to capitalize on his find. Over the next three years, his trading company harvested some 20,000 pearls from the atoll, with the largest of these having a reported value of US$5,000. In 1930, the
United States Bureau of Fisheries decided to conduct a thorough study of the atoll, led by Dr.
Paul Galtsoff. The crew was evacuated by the following day. The
salvage tug Ono arrived on December 25 to attempt to tow the ship clear, but persistent stormy weather forced a delay of the rescue attempt. On January 3, before another rescue attempt could be made, the ship's anchors tore loose, and
Quartette was blown onto the reef. It was deemed a
total loss. Several weeks later, it snapped in half at the
keel and the two pieces sank. The wreck site now serves as an
artificial reef which provides a habitat for many fish species. On July 2, 2005, the research vessel MV
Casitas,
chartered by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), ran aground on the north end of the atoll. The ship was carrying large quantities of
gasoline,
diesel fuel, and
oil, which posed a substantial risk of leaking. Leak-prevention and extraction efforts led by the
United States Coast Guard (USCG) in conjunction with other
United States Government and
State of Hawaii agencies began immediately. Although several people on board were forced to evacuate the ship, there was no loss of life. The initial grounding, combined with the rescue efforts, caused extensive damage to the reef including "breakage of coral heads, scouring of the substrate, and injury to the reef structure itself". The ship was fully removed from the atoll on August 4, 2005, but was too damaged for
salvage. She was towed to a site northwest of Pearl and Hermes Atoll approved by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where she was sunk in waters over deep. Efforts to remove remaining debris and repair the reef began in 2011. Among the components located were "a six-cylinder Atlas Imperial diesel and machinery scatter, propeller shaft and propeller, a marine propulsion plant popular in the early decades of the 20th century." Researchers theorized that the wreckage was an East Asian fishing vessel that struck the reef sometime after 1918, based on the age of the components.
Maritime archaeologists from the NOAA returned to the wreck site of
Pearl in 2005 and 2006 to conduct further surveys. The 2005 survey was based on the NOAA research vessel
Hiʻialakai. The same group also attempted to survey the nearby site of
Hermes, but were prevented by poor weather conditions. A number of artifacts were found at the
Pearl site, including
anchors, two
cannons, and large
try pots for rendering
whale blubber. Many smaller artifacts were found actually embedded into the coral of the reef. The 2006 survey focused on completing a full site plan of the wreckage. In contrast to the scattered state of the
Hermes site, the artifacts of the
Pearl site are grouped roughly in the same configuration that they would have had on the intact ship, with site length being approximately the length the ship would have been. In 2008, NOAA maritime archaeologists returned to the site of
Hermes to complete the survey begun in 2005. The site was confirmed to be located about to the west of the
Pearl site. A full site plan was completed, and both photographs and high definition video were made. The site contained similar artifacts to those found at the site of the
Pearl, including two anchors and four cannons. At least 33
cannonballs were found, stored in linear racks, as well as stores of
musket balls. Finally, some 150 iron ballast pieces were found. The extremely scattered state of the wreckage seems to confirm that the
Hermes broke apart quickly and scattered with force across the sea floor. ==Flora and fauna==